I haven’t been to CrossFit in months- Covid, excuses, laziness and a knee-surgery are all equally to blame. I went back to Olive Branch CrossFit yesterday. I wanted to rehab my knee a little bit and just move around. The workout was a descending ladder of dumbbell squats and 200meter runs.

Before the workout started, I had the pleasure of meeting a member I had never met before. She was very kind. Her skin color was that of a human, her age was the age that humans sometimes are, her fitness level was likely not that of a CrossFit Games competitor but I cannot be 100% sure- I think we have made enough assumptions about people to last us the next century.

The workout started and I immediately struggled. Partially due to a lack of fitness and partially due to my knee situation, I was moving rather slow. My bodyweight squats were that of a heavy-set, highly immobile stripper that was holding onto the rig and praying that the thing was bolted tightly to the floor.

As my new friend and I went through our workout of 21-18-15-12-9-6-3 squats and 200meter runs, we found ourselves running in tandem most of the time. However, I was falling behind. I was in a real fight and she could sense it. As the time elapsed, she began to say encouraging things to me as we waddled through our runs. At one point, I felt like maybe I should just stop, but before I could make the decision, there she was, jogging in place while I finished my stripper squats, waiting on me to finish so we could do our prescribed run. This made me feel so good. This is what my gym has provided me with for the last 5 years. I have to tell you:

That shit never gets old.

Camaraderie,  caring and compassion for others will never go out of style. You cannot patent the human spirit. There is no trademark on decency. Sure, it happened in a Crossfit gym but giving a shit about other people and encouraging folks to finish something that they might not otherwise not finish is not something that is a Glassman creation or anyone else’s, for that matter.

You can take your personal brand of human nature to any gym, office, athletic field, church or school and display it whenever you want. I was shown once again why I love my gym and how much I need other people. CrossFit will go whatever direction it goes but the environment it helps to stimulate is never going away. Wherever there is struggle, decency and compassion, there will be people willing to walk through the door and participate.

Peace, Love and all things Beef related,

Beefcake